Heatran Raid Counters Guide

Heatran is a Generation 4 legendary Pokemon and a Raid Boss available in Pokemon GO from December 18th to January 15th 2018. Heatran is a Fire and Steel type, meaning it is weak to Fighting, Water and double weak (x2) to Ground type attacks, while resisting several types including:

Double resists: Bug, Fairy, Grass, Ice, Poison, Steel

Resists: Dragon, Flying, Normal, and Psychic.

Heatran is weather boosted by Sunny and Snow weather, which means it can be captured with Combat Power in the following ranges:

Heatran has a stat composition of 251 Attack, 213 Defense, and 209 Stamina leading to a Max CP of 3754. It can be duoed fairly easily, but otherwise we would suggest you take on Heatran in groups of 3-7, for high level players, or 8-20, for lower leveled players.

When a Pokémon is double weak to a practical typing, you can be sure that typing will be a common theme in a raid guide. Just like Tyranitar Guides have loads of Fighting typed counters, Heatran’s guide is filled with Ground types.

Heatran raid counters

Groudon is still the king of the Ground types, though not from lack of trying on Rhyperior’s part. It had great bulk and enough power to end the fight quickly, taking advantage of Heatran’s double weakness to Ground

Rhyperior deserves this spot as a Supreme counter on account of there being nothing around that matches what it and Groudon can do. Even Rhydon, the closest in neutral weather, is a incredible departure time wise from these two. If you want to take a Heatran out as fast as possible, you have to be using one of these two.

If not for its new evolution in Rhyperior, it would be taking its spot as a Supreme counter. Instead though, it is one of the best Excellent counters you can find, being both widely available due to its stints as a raid boss, as well as powerful enough to justify usage. Keep in mind though, it does not have Groudon or Rhyperior’s Bulk so it will faint a lot in comparison.

Swampert does not see a wide amount of usage, which is a shame due to its interesting typing and relatively good stats. It does have a time to shine here however, matching the bulk of even Groudon and Rhyperior and taking advantage of the x2 weakness to Ground

Best Heatran counters are strong Ground-type Pokemon that utilize Heatran’s double weakness to Ground typed moves. Pokemon like Groudon, Rhyperior and Rhydon are your top picks as they have access to Mud Shot / Mud Slap Ground and to Earthquake Ground. Heatran is an excellent opportunity to use a Swampert, as it is one of the rare match-ups where Swampert’s typing and move pool are a viable choice. This list above will be updated in the future, as we are awaiting any new evolutions coming along that might tip the counters, such as Mamoswine and Garchomp.

Ground types are the best choice in any weather, but if you don’t have a good selection of Ground types, a team of strong Water and Fighting Pokemon will do the trick. If that’s the case, we recommend using Water types over Fighting types, simply because they take reduced damage from slightly more moves than Fighting types, making your type coverage a bit easier.

The Heatran counters heat map info graphic shows how different Pokemon levels influence your Time to Win against Heatran:

Heatran counters performance per level

We also have the raw output from the Go Hub simulator, showing the top twelve against a Heatran (Unreleased Pokemon are included). And yes, you’re seeing it right, Garchomp is absolutely the best Heatran counter (and the best Ground type), but it is simply not available at this time.

Breaking down Heatran’s move sets

Heatran move pool

Fast Moves

Charge Moves

Fire Spin Fire

Bug Bite Bug

Fire Blast Fire

Stone Edge Rock

Iron Head Steel

Heatran’s move pool is an interesting mix of moves that benefit from STAB and moves that are seemingly just there for flavor purposes. Fire Spin is an excellent Fire typed move that deals a lot of damage (14 base power) and generates Energy quickly. Bug BiteBug generates energy quicker, which leads to Heatran using a charge move more frequently. In rare scenarios where Heatran has a Super Effective charged mve, this will result in a more difficult fight.

Heatran’s charge moves are a similar affair. Fire Blast is a high damage output Fire move that benefits from STAB and deals neutral damage to Ground types. Stone Edge is arguably the easiest charge move as it deals reduced damage to Ground types and deals far less damage than a Fire Blast. Iron Head is Heatran’s mandatory Steel typed charge move and it’s rather easy to fight against. Nothing note worthy here, just remember that it deals neutral damage to your Ground types.

We recommend fighting Heatran in sunny weather whenever it is possible to do so. Despite boosting Fire Spin and Fireblast, sunny weather will also boost all of your Ground type counters, making the fight easier while unlocking the Level 25 capture encounter. Ground types are your best option in any weather, despite Machamp and Kyogre getting a hefty boost during cloudy and rainy weather fights. If you’re in the northern hemisphere and it’s snowy, you will have a slightly more difficult fight if Heatran has Iron Head, but other than that, it’s a no brainer – go for it.

Minimal and optimal number of Trainers for Heatran

Charge move

Minimum

Optimal

Fire Blast Fire

2 – 3

4

Stone Edge Rock

2

4

Iron Head Steel

2

4

Heatran duo raids are possible, but we only recommend doing them with a strong Ground team that’s powered up above Level 30. Your best picks are Groudon and Rhyperior, as they are the fastest Heatran counters by a mile. However, there are videos of players duoing Heatran with a team of Machamps and with the Cloudy weather boost.

Heatran Use in the Meta:

If you get a weather boosted Heatran, it’ll be between cp2573 – cp2681. Due there being several Pokémon that perform better in its current role, it’s not worth powering up. You might as well therefore, trade it with someone else before you leave the raid and see if you can make it eligible for use in the Ultra League (unless of course you already have some decent Fire types below cp2500).

By trading with the following friend levels, Heatran would land in the specified CP ranges

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